Data networks, such as wireless communication networks, have to trade off between services customized for a single terminal and services provided to a large number of terminals. For example, the overhead required to provide services to one or a few terminals may not be significant, however, the overhead required to provide those same services to a large number of terminals may be significant and consume a substantial amount of network resources. Thus, the distribution of content to a large number of mobile terminals (subscribers) is a complicated problem. This is especially true for mobile terminals that communicate using relatively slow speed over-the-air communication links as opposed to much faster hardwired connections generally used by devices having fixed locations. Therefore, it is very important for network administrators and content providers to have a way that allows mobile terminals to easily and efficiently subscribe to receive content and/or other network services.
In current content delivery/media distribution systems, subscriptions are typically handled over the Internet via one or more customer sign-up pages, or as in traditional cable and satellite systems, via a telephone call made by the customer to a customer service representative. The Web page model may even offer one or more pages that can be accessed from or specifically formatted (i.e., WML, XHTML) for presentation on a mobile device. However, this approach is essentially just a variation of the Internet sign-up page model.
Typically, Web page subscription services provide server driven request/response systems. For example, a user is presented with screen after screen of various forms that must be filled out and submitted to a network server. Thus, the system is presentation layer dependent, since the various forms are formatted and stored at the server, and the subscribing device need only render those forms for the device user to fill out. As a result, the server generally needs to provide forms that have been formatted for the rendering resource available on the subscribing device. In some cases, the server provides the correctly formatted forms, and in other cases, the server directs the device to an alternative site or server to retrieve the correctly formatted forms. Therefore, whether the device is a desktop computer or a mobile computing device, the same server driven request/response system is provided with the forms reformatted for the rendering capabilities of the subscribing device.
Unfortunately, current systems do not provide a fast and efficient way for a mobile device, such as a mobile terminal, to subscribe to one or more service packages. For example, a device user first needs to launch a data session with a service provider in order to view the service offerings. After selecting an offering for subscription, the user needs to complete one or more forms that are downloaded from the server and rendered on the device. Generally, because the forms are formatted for rendering on a relatively small screen available on the portable device, multiple forms need to be completed. Furthermore, because the entire process is conducted over-the-air, the relatively low transmission speeds make the subscription process very slow. Therefore, as a result of the slow and tedious subscription process currently available, portable device users may avoid subscriptions altogether, or if they do use the system, may be dissatisfied with its response and efficiency.
Therefore, what is needed is an over-the-air subscription system that allows users of mobile devices to easily subscribe to one or more service packages. The system should operate to avoid the problems associated with presentation layer subscription services, so that device users may quickly and efficiently subscribe to receive available services using slower over-the-air transmission speeds.